Yeah, i think that would fall under vote buying - illegal
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this suggests otherwise - https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/
26% of Sanders supporters say their 2nd choice is Joe Biden seems to support the idea that this is still just all a popularity/name recognition contest at this point. Bloomberg may scoop the whole thing if thatās the case cuz he could buy out all the timeslots for ads.
Iām pretty sure I was hating on Tulsi before it was cool. This is from 3 years ago:
Tulsi Gubbard makes Hillary Clinton look like Eugene Debs
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Do some people donate to every candidate? Donations could still be used to fund the general election campaign, right?
Yang could be a strong contender in 2024 (after Trump beats Biden in 2020).
Heās a strong contender now dude. The biggest barrier to him breaking out is the fact that Bloomberg has gotten twice as much media coverage in the last month as heās gotten all campaign. The guy genuinely appeals to voters across the ideological spectrum. You guys donāt get it: this guy has figured out how to package and sell liberal ideas to the Fox News crowd. Heās exactly what this situation calls for. Heād absolutely waffle crush Trump by running a smart populist campaign.
Look Iām really not fine with the establishment Dems getting another swing here. In my lifetime theyāve managed to lose to Bush twice and Trump once. I definitely think losing to Trump again is a decent chunk of their range, and honestly Iām through with them. They had multiple chances and they blew it. I see Yangās ālack of experienceā as a top party official as a substantial plus.
What we have in this country in 2019 is a political duopoly where both parties are wheezing, bloated, and tired. Neither one has anything resembling a good grip on reality, and neither one has any of our best interests at heart. Yes the GOP is substantially worse, but thatās because they decided to go full sell out instead of 75% sell outā¦ and because the demographics they target for voters are full of fundamentalist religious nuts which drives their social policy.
At this point I donāt believe in the ability of the Democratic Party to fix any of this. I donāt even think they even know how. Yang at least has a firm grip on reality and seems to see reality well. Thatās a lot more than I can say for Bernie who bizarrely for American politics is too far left (heās literally the only one so itās super weirdā¦ but these far left idealists have a truly trash track record globally) and Warren Iām increasingly unsure of. She just seems to make serious tactical errors 2-3 times a year. Iām starting to seriously wonder if she has a firm grasp on risk:reward type thinking, and for someone who is going to be making major decisions for the whole country thatās uncomfortable. (In particular I think she tends to underestimate risk. The Native American ancestry thing and then the Medicare for All with no middle class tax increases + backtrack were both suuuuuuuper risky and I donāt think the reward was close to justifying it.)
Pete is busy selling out, which makes sense given his career history. Biden is way too old and frankly is the kind of party official who has done a little too well in this recently passed era. Harris was a DA for fucks sake, and not one of these new fangled social justice DAās, but the old school kind that executed what most people will view as atrocities in 30 years. Also she clearly isnāt a good manager because look at how her campaign is being run.
The rest of the field are nobodies who demonstrate the Peter principle pretty well.
I started this primary thinking we had a field of historic strength with multiple Obama level talents running. Since then all but one have found ways to seriously devastatingly disappoint meā¦ although so has Obama. I get that these people are all human, but theyāre auditioning for the most powerful person in the world, and I donāt feel like any of them are even all that specialā¦ except for Yang.
Yang keeps on gaining ground by always representing reality truthfully and not being afraid to embrace good policy regardless of silly focus groups stuff like optics. He seems to decide on what is needed from a āwhat will workā perspective and then he goes to the focus groups to decide on how to brand/market that choiceā¦ which makes him miles ahead of the other candidates in terms of both policy AND messaging. It turns out when you start with āwhat would be the right thing to doā and only THEN work on figuring out the absolute best way to sell that idea you get a better result than when you look at a group of messages and pick the one that sounds the best regardless of which one would produce the best outcome.
I know an elite salesman when I see one. I hate Ben Shapiro with the heat of a thousand suns, and the only video of his Iāve been able to watch more than 2-5 minutes of was the one where Yang went on with him. That man ran circles around Shapiro without pissing him off. He disarmed him and then started to assimilate him. He immediately mirrored the mans own language, and then used the (very limited lol) things that they agreed about to build rapportā¦ and then he sold him. And by the end Shapiro wasnāt exactly a convert, but he was getting dunked on sentence by sentence without even realizing it and his entire audience was up for grabs.
I look at the Yang groups and I see an awful lot of Rogan/Shapiro fansā¦ and I also see an awful lot of far left people. I know it isnāt remotely fashionable to talk about bipartisanship on this forum, which is fair, and Iām not talking about that. Iām not talking about reaching the old white men in power in the GOP. Iām talking about reaching their voters. Yang plays well with nearly everyone who isnāt a politics nut like us. We LIKE political speeches by normal politicians (at least I used toā¦ now honestly they give me flashbacks and a deep sense of dreadā¦ thanks Hillary!) Normal people want to hear about how their lives can get better. Yang is absolutely incredible at that.
One of the things I donāt want to hear anymore is āYang canāt winā. Thereās absolutely no reason why thatās true other than people think he canāt win. And the media (especially MSNBC, but the rest are guilty as well) doesnāt seem to want to cover him. Right now America needs someone like this very badly. We need a great leader to take us through a very difficult period in our history. We have a very narrow window to hit right now and if we miss it the results will be catastrophic, global, and very likely mean the end of the entire system with really serious political violence to follow. No one on this board is drawing dead to getting killed. Weāre intellectuals, and intellectuals are usually the first on the train to the death camp. Iāve already figured out my exit plans and the rest of you should as well. Thereās no honor in getting murdered by fascists.
We arenāt all fuckedā¦ but weāre in the twilight before WAAF. Weāve twiddled our thumbs for 40 years as a civilization and now the cracks are really starting to show. If this thing breaks up itās going to be super super ugly. Iām for absolutely anyone who has a shot at fixing this. Weāre in a situation where our range of outcomes is super polarized between āweāll be okā and āwe wonāt be okā¦ at allā. In a lot of ways the difference between Biden and Trump is basically nothing because both hands lose at showdown.
At this point if I had to choose between Steyer and any of the establishment Dems Iād pick Steyer. He at least is a good manager and can almost single handedly outspend the competition. If you have to go establishment Iād rather go with one of the owners of the establishment than one of their shitty employees.
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That should have been your first red flag.
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Bernie is a new deal democrat and Boredsocial is close to getting a āWhat do you mean āour best interestsā?ā
Re: Bloomberg
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1201516422964355074?s=20
Itās sickening how he is literally going to buy his way into being a contender.
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That post made go back and reread the most amazing post ever:
Iām somewhat inclined towards the argument that he has some ulterior motive for running, like he gets to be on the debate stage, or heās allowed to buy ads, or whatever being a candidate gets you; idk. I donāt think heās actually trying to win, I think heās trying to influence the race by other means. Probably he wants to try to sabotage the leftist candidates somehow.
I just think some of you are so wrong on this. The people who are drawn to candidates arenāt your red flags. They are looking for new blood and ideas because they are sick to death of status quo corrupt government that works for corporate interests and the wealthy, instead of the working people. The red flags are those who want to run a centrist because if Trump is the more radical candidate on stage and is still the most likely to throw a hand grenade into the system as we know it, he will beat us again
No. Those are people and they vote. Getting one of them is like turning your ass out to the polls twice.
Military bro literally says like āthe problem is that a LOT of the people coming from Mexico are these MS-13 typesā. Zero pushback from Gabbard.
Sheās disgraceful.
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And the solution is obv to elect some unqualified businessbro. Worked so well in 2016!
I think this is a subject for another thread. The thing is, there shouldnāt be any rigid lines where if you cross over on one issue it makes your a blasphemer of your own party. There are many on the left who while they are for ending children in cages tomorrow, allowing DACA children to stay, are all for helping asylum seekers, etc., who STILL want some type of sensible border enforcement. Half the MAGAts who want to build their stupid wall to keep Mexicans out, couldnāt become a Canadian citizen because Canada requires you show youāll be a productive citizen
Again, if there isnāt already, there should be an immigration thread. Itās complicated and I donāt know the statistics. I would think most Mexicans trying to get into this country are poor and trying to flee cartels and MS-13 types. But I donāt think anyone would reasonably argue that keeping out MS-13 is probably a good idea. Thereās a lot to unpack and discuss when it comes to immigration and reasonable people can disagree
I think this is a great topic. What should we consider qualified? HRC was probably the most qualified candidate to ever run for the presidency. Do you think sheād have made a good president?
I think if 2016 has proven anything, itās that the president doesnāt need to be āqualifiedā. The presidentās main role is to set the tone and agenda for the country. Taking care of details and seeing that things run efficiently is what your cabinet and generals are for. I think a businessbro would be pretty good at hiring āthe bestā people for the job. Unfortunately, Trump was never very good at business. Also, there are very few businessmen who wouldnāt be just as corrupt as Trump is. So the question more do you trust Yang, rather than is he qualified
Sheād be a lot fucking better than the reality TV businessbro we have now. Like, where are you even going with this?
We as a nation really need to get over our collective need to glorify these business dudes. Like, what does a guy who ran an SAT prep business know about appointing a good secretary of defense? His Rolodex is full of business associates and heās going to pick a bunch of his business friends to run the country because thatās how these people operate.
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His rolodex is full of the same elite people that went to elite private schools as everyone else. He went the Phillips Exeter Academy, Brown, and then Columbia Law school and has spent a good chunk of the time since he exited that test prep business (which was targeted more at people looking to take the post bachelors grad school tests actually) recruiting people at the elite schools for both fundraising and as VFA candidates.
Look you still think means testing is great so I donāt know why I take you seriously at all. You havenāt done any research on Yang because you have a visceral negative reaction to anyone who has had any kind of success in capitalism. You still think the politicians are going to save you from the businesspeople. I donāt know why that is honestly. Our most talented people stopped being politicians over a generation ago. Who on earth would want to spend 5-6 hours a day making calls to beg for money and not get anything done?
The guys entire family are academics. If anything heās going to pull most of his staff from elite academic institutions just like Liz will. The political system has sucked really really hard for the last 30-40 years, which means anyone who thrived in it also sucks. Logic. What do they teach them in these schools?
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